Christianity does not equal the Kingdom of God

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being born again, blogging, Christianity, eternal life, experience, eyes of the heart, following Jesus, Jesus Christ, joy, knowing God, pain, peace, reading, spiritual power, sting of death, writing

Not that I was hell-bent on publishing another blog post. However, since I was housebound until craftsmen had done their work in our flat, I decided to read a bit on the internet which I had not done often lately. Still, it seems to me a pretty boring matter to get back on the internet after having experienced LIFE, real LIFE that is a gift from God, divine LIFE that cannot be conferred on anybody, esp. not in such an artificial place as the internet is. Presenting truths to people whom we most probably will never ever come to know personally in this life time has become a frustrating experience over the last months (years?) to me. Having said this, you might wonder why I keep writing, though.

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I AM the Resurrection

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death, eternal life, experience, good works, grace, life after death, Life and Death, Martin Luther, Nicky Gumbel, Pippa Gumbel, salvation, true faith, truth

When time as we know it comes to an end, eternity in Christ begins.
(Picture taken from http://riverbankoftruth.com/)

Just lately I felt concerned about those who are grieved because they do not know whether their loved ones will be saved or not. Even looking closely at other people, we sometimes perceive no outward sign of faith in Jesus Christ. BUT that does not mean that they won’t be saved!

Speaking the Words of Eternal Life

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confusion, discerning the spirits, doctrine, entering his rest, eternal life, evangelism, experience, fear, freedom, God's guidance, hope, John MacArthur, mind, Old Self, peace, philosophy, Satan, spirit and life, The Great Commission, thought life, worries

“Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.” (Ps 74:16 ESV)
– Photo by Paul Schuberth

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:63-69 ESV)

Jesus told His disciples that the word HE had spoken were spirit and life. How could he claim such a thing? And why is that true? How come that over the centuries so many educated people falsely assumed that the words written in the four gospels would automatically have the same spirit and life in them as they originally possessed when our Lord voiced them? I know that my questions are challenging here. However, it is so important to see how easily confusion can arise when we read for example about the Great Commission.

Enjoying Life by Obeying God or… The Choice of Life and Death

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death, decisions, discerning the spirits, dying to self, eternal life, exhortation, experience, family, freedom, friends, grace, idolatry, joy, life, loved ones, new creation, old creation, pain, peace, suffering, T.A. Sparks, unbelief, walking by the spirit

Some Wildflowers on the Balcony
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

God spoke to me a few minutes ago through the following Scriptures. He made them alive particularly by emphasizing the word TODAY. You can read this word five times in these verses. As many might know, five is the number that stands for GRACE. Just to give you a few hints as for the context in which God spoke to me, I can tell you that I had a struggle regarding a decision on how to react (or not) to someone’s misbehavior that put them in more or less big trouble. If you love someone, you might know how difficult it is to not intervene when you see things go downhill. So, my heart was very troubled about this trial as God pointed out to me that NOW it was my choice to turn to Him and to obey Him instead of trying to ‘save’ someone I love. If I obeyed Him, all things would turn out well, He said. Below you can read the Bible verses that reached my heart and comforted me immediately.

Awakened to a New Life… IN Christ

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awakened, being born again, darkness, discerning the spirits, encouragement, eternal life, exhortation, experience, experiencing eternal life, fellowship, Fellowship with God, God's love, Jesus Christ, light, Oneness, Paul Schuberth, Satan, sin, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self

“Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.” – John Wesley
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

This is not a new post. I put this article as a featured blog entry before all others on my home page since after rereading, I just found out that this writing expresses now, more than one year later, a lot of what I have been going through since then. As for publishing new and inspired blog posts, I will have to wait for Him to inspire me once again in the days ahead, whenever that may be. 😉

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Lately I began to wonder when this seemingly endless process of dying to self finally would be over. To be completely honest with you, I had given up any hope of ever seeing His light again, just as the apostle Paul said here, “… we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1:8-9 ESV) Just now as I checked the context of these verses, I saw some encouragement I unintentionally had ignored before. Paul wrote there,

Nowhereland… or between Death and Resurrection

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death, discerning the spirits, eternal life, experience, false gospel, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, life after death, Ministry, Satan, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self, the promised land

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. (Is 30:21 ESV)
Photo by Susanne Schuberth

I could have also called this state I am finding myself in ‘the period of putting off the old self and putting on the new self’ which is something no one may observe but God and me. It is like being in the tomb after having endured the cross, having died to everything and everyone you once loved more than God and Jesus. And little by little, a completely new world gradually comes to light. Or in other words, “the day dawns and the morning star rises” (2 Pt 1:19 ESV) in our heart in order to never disappear again. Jesus promised us, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn 17:3 ESV) We cannot put ourselves into eternal life as much as we might wish to get there. If we refuse to endure the cross, we remain captured in our old and fallen nature that is unable to serve and please God. There are many ‘Christs’ that have been preached from the very beginning and it seems to me even more today. However, every crossless gospel that strengthens our old nature or tries to change it (which never works) instead of telling us that our old Adam nature is completely useless for the work of God, these gospels are of satanic origin. All of them, without exception, whether it is the health and wealth gospel where our worldly desires and our mortal body gain center stage or the social gospel that tries to change the world we live in (without being called by God to do so). There are so many more things we can believe and which lead us astray, that is, away from Christ and the narrow path. What they have in common is that we can do them on our own. We do not need God’s power in order to do what we always did, do we?

Living LIFE Abundantly

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death, discerning the spirits, encouragement, eternal life, experience, Fellowship with God, freedom, God, Jesus Christ, new life, resurrection, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, the new self, the old self

The Way that leads to LIFE is long and hard (Mt 7:14), but every path comes to an end, finally…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

The following excerpts from T.A. Sparks make clear the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man who allows himself to be guided by God 24/7. We cannot reach this blissful state unless our old self has died completely since only then we are “transferred” or baptized into Christ (see Gal 3:27) and are enabled to enjoy a life of perfect obedience to Him. We may know that it is a process, a long process, until we utterly despair of our old Adam nature and leave it all up to Him. But once we have died to our old self, Christ’s resurrection power begins to flow into a renewed mind and into a completely new heart that was given by God also. And from that time on, REAL LIFE in the kingdom of God begins. What I meant by ‘real life’ is a spiritual life that no longer knows the sting of death. These who “loved not their lives even unto death,“ (Rev 12:11 ESV), or in other words, these believers who hated their old self life, are enabled to enjoy God in all circumstances instead, just as Jesus promised us here,

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn 10:10 ESV)

Eventually, here is T.A. Sparks’ exposition on ‘Fellowship with God’ which I found to be very helpful for me. I hope it serves you too, dear reader. As a side note, I became aware of this article by TAS as I read another quote from him in this blog article by Becky Johnson yesterday. Thank you, Becky! 🙂

A Life Redeemed, now……or later?

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circumstances, eternal life, experience, joy, life after death, new life, Oswald Chambers, seeing God, spiritual power, spiritual transformation, wilderness

The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

How can we discern God’s voice from other voices? (updated Dec 28, 2016)

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abiding in Christ, carnal mind, discerning the spirits, eternal life, Islamic mysticism, Jesus Christ, John Wesley, other religions, peace, spiritual mind, Sufis

Seeking God in the Silence…
(Picture taken from http://www.stjosephimperial.org/stewardship)

This is another article on discerning the spirits. I hope I can dig deeper now than I could do it before on this blog site. Actually, discerning the spirits is not about thinking, “The Bible is true and everything else that comes from this world or what was written in other religions is completely wrong.” Knowing the Living God, I realized that the eternal I AM always communicated His wisdom to human beings. The difference between all those other religions which had come before the book of Genesis was written and before the Hebrews were chosen to be God’s people that was allowed to get to know Him as the only God, is simply that there was a blend of God’s truth mixed with other religious stuff and God had not yet enabled man to discern the whole truth. Before Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection it was not yet time to do so (see Acts 17:30). Only God’s chosen prophets in the OT could utter pure divine wisdom through God’s Spirit dwelling on them. However, there were always wise men in the past who shared divine wisdom as well (though not perfectly, still truth mixed with lies at times) such as Seneca, Plato, Confucius etc. pp. However, since Christ has come into this world and is risen, we may know that we only find The Whole Truth by abiding in Him who “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor 1:30 ESV).

Thank You…

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being born again, eternal life, joy, new life, pain, resurrection, Son of God, spiritual power, thanksgiving, the Kingdom of God

Thank You
(Photo credits http://mareenasrecipecollections.com/?attachment_id=312)

Thank You for some laughter in the rain
And for tears of joy mixed up with pain
For new life that follows death
Resurrection’s first fresh breath

Breathed on us out of clear sky
That makes dry bones surely sigh
See, flesh and skin from on high
Yes, His kingdom’s life is nigh